SPRINGFIELD – Following a marathon day of a Special Legislative Session on Tuesday, State Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) decried the process used to advance a new set of legislative redistricting maps to Governor Pritzker’s desk, the second such effort in less than 6 months.
“Democrats rushed the redistricting process last spring, used bad data, and ended up with an unconstitutional map,” Windhorst said. “The priority of House and Senate Democrats was purely the advancement and protection of their own political power. Their actions predictably led the General Assembly to have to return when US Census data was released, as it was revealed that some legislative districts deviated as much as 30% in population from others in the state. House Republican members of the House Redistricting Committee sternly warned against using American Community Survey data to draw legislative maps, but Democrats pushed forward.”
The rare August legislative Special Session was set to begin around noon on Tuesday, but lawmakers found themselves with plenty of time on their hands as Democratic politicians worked behind closed doors to finalize new legislative maps that, if signed and found Constitutional, would take effect in January 2023.
“The Democrats called us to Springfield, and even after all the time that has passed since the US Census released its data, and even after an Illinois court directed Democrats to take steps to fix the errors in their original maps, they didn’t have their homework done. Legislators ended up sitting around for hours while supermajority politicians went behind a closed, locked door to draw maps that ensure their partisan advantage for the next decade. The process was a sham and the final product is a shameful demonstration that Democratic politicians prioritized their own political power over good government.”
The new map draws together 12 current House Republican incumbents while ensuring no incumbent House Democratic politicians will face a primary with a fellow Democratic incumbent.
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